Law Firms

For law firms, the devastation that swept through the legal marketplace in 2008 and 2009 has come to an end. Layoffs have stopped or at least have been sharply curtailed, firms that suspended hiring are recruiting once again, and profits, though flat or down, have stabilized at numbers that would make average middle-class American wage […]

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has sparred for years with Justice Antonin Scalia on the printed pages of legal opinions. The two have even debated about constitutional interpretation in public. And now Justice Breyer has taken his argument to the printed pages of a book written for popular consumption. In his first interview about

The yearlong extradition dispute over Jamaican businessman Christopher “Dudus” Coke, accused by federal prosecutors of smuggling illegal firearms and narcotics, led to some embarrassing allegations against Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Now Coke is adding to his U.S. legal team while he sits in a federal detention center in Manhattan. After months of growing political pressure

The annual associate survey found Boston’s Nutter McLennon at Number one position, followed by St Louis’ Thompson Coburn. Both firms took the same spot last year for the national rankings. Number 3 was Gibson Dunn, 4, Harter Secrets; 5, Best Best; 6, Dorsey & Whitney; 7, Paul Hastings; 8, Harris Beach; 9, Gibbons; 10, Ropes

A whopper of a late summer for M&A lawyers grew even fatter Thursday, when Burger King announced its sale to investment firm 3G Capital for $4 billion. Four Am Law 100 firms landed key legal advisory roles on the deal, which will return the world’s second-largest hamburger chain to the private sector. Eileen Nugent, co-head

A federal judge has slashed what he called an “unusual” request for additional fees by Milberg for a 2006 settlement of a securities class action against Nortel Networks Corp. Milberg, along with its Canadian co-counsel and the settlement’s claims administrator, asked for $2.77 million in fees and expenses not included in their 2007 fee applications.

A $55 million lawsuit by a unit of Cerberus Capital Management L.P. can proceed against Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker over allegations the firm gave faulty advice on a loan made in connection with a private equity firm’s 2008 acquisition of bankrupt retailer Steve & Barry’s. In a decision filed last week, Manhattan Supreme Court

The management of one of Britain’s top regional law firms was holding crisis talks last night after calling in the administrators. Halliwells of Manchester is the first big legal practice to fall victim to the financial crisis and could become the biggest ever to go out of business. The negotiations were aimed at transferring the

The U.S. Justice Department’s decision to open a criminal investigation into the Gulf Coast oil spill is threatening to complicate scores of lawsuits brought by people seeking compensation for the disaster. At issue are questions that often come up in so-called “parallel proceedings” — in which multiple government agencies are investigating the same event for

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should force Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) to return funds it got from American International Group Inc. (AIG) if the insurer sold default protection based on fraudulent conduct by Goldman, two Congressmen said. The securities, part of a group of collateralized debt obligations dubbed Abacus, are tied to home